ABB Miniature Circuit Breakers
ABB miniature circuit breakers (MCBs) protect electrical circuits in many different types of buildings and facilities. ABB MCBs are not just competent; they are also good at what they do. They go to work when a certain level of excess current is found—either due to a demanding piece of equipment drawing way more current than it should or something else going wrong in an electrical panel.
The range of miniature circuit breakers (MCBs) offered by ABB is diverse. Inside the range, you will find a subset known as the System pro M compact series. As the name implies, this series aims for optimal performance in a small package. Keystone to that achievement is the high breaking capacity of these MCBs. When push comes to shove and a fault condition places many miniaturized breakers under high load at once, these virtual nonexistent arcs and arcs within ABB’s MCBs ensure breaker performance.
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More Information about ABB Miniature Circuit Breakers
DIN rail mounting of ABB miniature circuit breakers is straightforward and secure in electrical panels. These circuit breakers are fitted with a combination of thermal-magnetic trip units that keep circuits safe from both overloads and short circuits. The delayed thermal tripping mechanism responds to a significant and sustained increase in current over the nominal or rating current of the circuit, and the magnetic tripping mechanism part of the trip unit responds to a very high, short burst of current that amounts to many times the rating current of the circuit.
Not only are ABB MCBs tough and durable, they also excel in poor conditions when shock and vibration may cause other MCBs to fail. They have a "tough on" and "tough off" mode of operation that does not waver, regardless of some of the extreme conditions under which they are tested, with an attention to failure that can be as illuminating as their overall success in these conditions.
FAQS
Do tripping mechanisms ensure electrical safety by protecting electrical installations and providing overload protection and short circuit protection?
Yes, tripping mechanisms in circuit breakers ensure electrical safety by protecting electrical installations through the provision of overload protection and short circuit protection, interrupting the current flow when abnormal conditions are detected.
Trip Curve Basics Part 1
There are two critical elements in miniature circuit beakers.
Bimetal strip
This strip has two dissimilar metals attached to one another. When a prolonged overcurrent occurs, these metals begin to bend. Because the metals are different, the rate at which they bend is different, therefore causing the strip to bend. If this bending occurs long enough, the bending strip will disrupt the electrical contacts inside the breaker, causing it to trip.
Coil or solenoid
The coil or solenoid is designed for larger overcurrent events like a short circuit or lightning strike. When a large overcurrent event occurs, the plunger in the solenoid is actuated, thereby tripping the breaker.
What is a trip curve?
It is both the prolonged overcurrent protection from the bimetal strip and the higher spikes in voltage and current protection from the solenoid that make up the circuit breakers trip curve. How fast or slow these events occur determines the shape of the curve. A trip curve is simply a graphical representation of the expected behavior of a circuit protection device, in this case, a circuit breaker.
This graphical representation looks at two separate pieces of data to provide the information needed to understand when a particular breaker will trip. The first is time, more specifically, the time the circuit breaker experiences a certain amount of overcurrent. The second is the amount of current. In this case, how much more current is passing through the breaker than the protection device is actually rated for.